Revision
by Artemis of the Ice
Summary: She's the oldest and most mature. Still, Yumi's got the typical teenage problems, no matter how intuitive she may be. Takes place after "Teddygodzilla". Slight YU. One-shot.


Story: **Revision**

Author: Artemis

Rating: PG, just for the heck of it, and the use of one atypical word.

Notes: This is not my bloody first fanfic- I just don't normally post on It used to be very temperamental. However, this is my first one-shot, and my first in 1st-person point-of-view. Anyhow, this takes place after "Teddygodzilla"- I was surprised to see that the writers in this fandom don't do many episode response stories.

I frankly despise writing fluff (so this story rather embarrasses me), but this little plot nugget was too irksome to just leave there. If you can't tell whose POV this is in, then...wow.

Slight AU.

-.-.-.-

"You're not too mad at me, are you, Yumi?"

How could anyone possibly get mad at someone like that?

"Not at all. Anyway, my secret admirer will take me tonight, right, Odd?" Odd threw me a sly, knowing look- he knew precisely what I was trying to get out of- but nodded his consent.

As Ulrich stood and straightened himself, we fell into our normal Sissy-taunting routine, but my heart wasn't completely in it. I gave myself a few mental smacks- Ulrich wasn't mine to begin with, but what was this feeling of...disappointment that was starting to make my fingers cold? He was just helping another poor victim of the Prep Queen. Who was I to prevent him from being a good person? I shook myself conscious again and returned to a roll of duct tape near me, tearing a strip off and plastering some of the wiring and lights to the wall. Jeremie and Odd filed back into the room, done chasing off Sissy and company. Jeremie took his turn on the ladder, but Odd glanced at me again, reading my thoughts; his eyes darted over to Ulrich, who was still outside with Millie, apparently trying to pry her off of him. I inclined my head toward them, letting a questioning look come over my face. Odd, being more intuitive than many people took him for, got the hint, and we shifted closer to the door. Only bits of their conversation could be picked up, but what we could hear somehow made my spirits sink further:

Millie was wheedling, "...are you doing this for me just because you feel sorry?"

_Yes,_ I begged silently, _please say yes..._

"No," he replied, "you're a really nice girl- wait a few years, and I'm sure guys will be running to you from all directions..."

What else could I have expected? Withdrawn as he may be, he's a kind soul. Still, I felt a physical twinge of pain in my body, and frowned.

She beamed, threw her arms around him- he seemed quite startled, and was nearly knocked off balance- and ran off, Tamiya trailing behind her with the video camera still rolling. Ulrich continued to stand there, looking away from us, and I took the opportunity to turn around and return to my regular position behind the ladder, hiding the fact that we'd been eavesdropping. Odd raised an eyebrow, and whispered in a low, conspiratorial tone, "You've got it _bad_."

_Self-control, Yumi, self-control..._I gritted my teeth, fighting the urge to hit something, and Odd grinned. "Really bad," he added.

"Really bad what?" asked a voice behind us. Jeremie snickered, and I was sure that my face was turning pink very steadily. Odd turned around, and raised an eyebrow at Ulrich's rumpled appearance.

"You've been attacked by an underclassman hug of doom," he informed the brunette, smoothly evading our real topic of discussion. I reminded myself to thank him later. "I'd say you look like a really bad ninth-grader, being glomped like that...hey! What?" He was being dragged away by said recipient of the doom-hug, who was looking none too pleased. I shook my head to cover the blush, and bent down to untangle more wiring. I would really have to start squashing my rebellious thoughts.

-.-.-.-

I sank into my bath later, making sure that none of the splashing water droplets got onto my mobile phone, which I was keeping close to the bath in case of a repeat of today's events. I felt a distinct and understandable sense of déjà vu- I was, after all, replicating the same day except with one less rabid, possessed teddy bear.

Well, it wasn't _quite_ the same day. My date was certainly different.

Feeling a blush creep up my face, I sunk further under the water. I was supposed to stop thinking about him- stupid insufferable teenage hormones! I was being impossible. Normally I kept my thoughts corked and bottled, but this time...

I suppose dances and proms will do that to you.

I got out of the tub after letting my thoughts drift, dried myself off, and got dressed. I went downstairs, the steps of my shoes echoing on the stairs in the silence, feeling absurd- as we do every day after we turn back time- because there wasn't destruction everywhere outside.

Ulrich wasn't at the door, either, to grab both of my hands and sprint me out the door. As abrupt as it was, it was also...enjoyable? I groaned, letting my forehead rest on my palm. I was not Sissy! I was normally cool, calculating, logical- and I wasn't acting normally, was I? Being in his presence turned me into a blushing mess. Stupid. I could hear my mom's voice in my head, gently assuring me that I would get over it when I was older, not a daydreaming kid, and out of the whirlwind of adolescence; something told me that I was fooling myself, and I'd be hung up on this for quite a while. Besides, he was younger than me- but another unruly section of my mind reminded me that one year was nothing, age was just a number, and besides- hadn't some celebrities dated men who were decades their junior?

Fortunately, the doorbell rang, helping me derail that particular train of thought. I opened the door to find Odd, smiling. I smiled faintly back at him, and we started walking to the school.

"Thanks for taking me," I said.

He shrugged. "No problem. Couldn't leave you hanging there just because Ulrich decided to be a Good Samaritan. Besides, this means that I do get to go, and-" he gave me a slight poke, "he can be a dork anyway, right?"

I smiled more widely this time, saying, "I guess so..."

"...but you naturally won't admit it," he put in, "because you're too head-over-heels." I slowed my walking, nearly stopping.

"What?"

He sighed. "Don't deny it. Wait," he held up his hands at my glare, "I won't tell him without your consent, but you have to admit- okay, you'll never admit it, but still- you've definitely got a thing for him."

I grinned, and started walking more quickly. "I won't tell anyone that you're a lot smarter than you look." He acted hurt for a moment, but brightened up and fell into his typical stance, starting to list all the possibilities of refreshments at the prom.

-.-.-.-

I watched idly, swirling the soda in my cup around, as Sissy was crowned beauty queen in a blatant display of favoritism that no one was surprised by. I sighed, and glanced over to where Millie was clinging onto Ulrich's arm, unaware of everything else. He looked slightly uncomfortable. In spite of myself, I smiled. _We made one small girl happy and one principal's daughter furious, so today wasn't so bad, right? _Still, I didn't feel like hanging around for too long, and the lights were starting to make me wonder whether they had spiked the drinks or not. The atmosphere was stifling, and...I just felt out of place, not being the type to associate with the types of social butterflies that were hovering around everyone. I stood out like a sore thumb. Just then, a flurry of pink caught my eye, and I saw Sissy fluttering her eyelashes away at my- er, at Ulrich, who was being tugged helplessly in the other direction by Millie. I nudged Odd, who was by my side with a sagging paper plate piled with food that defied the laws of gravity. "I'm going out for a quick breather, okay?" He flipped a thumbs-up sign, his mouth being too crammed for him to respond otherwise. "And see if you can't do something to help those two, ne?" He looked over at Ulrich and the younger girl, swallowed (which was a feat in itself) and smirked.

"Nice of you to be so concerned for her well-being," he drawled, knowing full well that my anxiety wasn't for Millie but for her...date. I rolled my eyes, gave him a little wave with my fingertips, and walked over to the doors, throwing them open.

The cool air was a relief, and I sat under a tree and drew my knees up under my chin. It was across from the windows that had shattered during the "other today", when I had run in to find Ulrich an inch from death, and later he had said:

"_Ready for a trip into the past, Yumi?"_

Damn. Even his voice was sexy.

_Bad Yumi. Down, girl. _I buried my head into my folded arms, groaning. _That was then, and this is now...although, technically, it was the same thing..._

Time travel gets confusing. Living the same day twice- more than once on different days- makes everything extraordinary seem normal.

I stayed in that position for hours- really a few minutes- when a voice above me said "Yumi? Are you okay?"

Crap. Speak of the devil. I looked up.

You wouldn't think that it'd really be possible for Ulrich to look any better, but he did. I wasn't precisely paying attention, though; he sat down next to me, distracting me from any thoughts of his appearance, looking through the window at the mayhem. "Yeah, I'm fine," I said, wincing at the cracking in my voice. "It just got a bit crowded in there." He chuckled.

"It really did. Odd seems to be having fun, though- he gets free food and Millie adores him. She'd probably love him even more for having volunteered to go find her teddy bear for her, if she remembered." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him look at me. My heart skipped a beat. Stupid organ. "Listen, Yumi, are you really not mad at me? I'm sorry for just leaving you like that-"

I waved it away. "I said that I wouldn't mind, remember?" I placed one hand on his shoulder, part of me cursing for my boldness and part of me cheering at the contact, and continued, "You made a girl's day, and got Sissy annoyed in the meantime. What more could you ask for?"

He scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. "...you."

I blinked. Did he just say that? I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks, and he didn't look immune, either. I'm sure we were both doing incredible impressions of cherries.

"I'd rather have gone with you," he clarified, looking bright red.

There was a pause, and I lowered my eyelashes, not trusting myself to keep from doing a victory dance if I kept looking at him. "Me too."

We looked up at the same time, grinning like idiots, and somehow I looked down again to find our hands clasped together. "Think Millie'd mind if I left her for a while?" Ulrich asked, seemingly in another dimension.

"I hope Odd's distracted her enough, because I don't care much," I replied faintly, undoubtedly looking like a dork. Suddenly overtaken by a fit of emotion, I hugged him again, holding him tightly against me, and this time, no time warp was going to disturb us. I let him go with the subconscious thought that he might not like it, and found him still smiling. We turned and headed back to the throng of students.

Sissy had much more to be mad about that evening, because we didn't leave each other's sides for a moment for the rest of the prom.

Stupid teenage hormones might not be so bad, after all.

_-fin-_

-.-.-.-

(Note: The story's called "Revision" because I guess you can call it revising the day, living the day out after they turn back time...whatever.)

Artemis: Aaah! Horror! I wrote fluff! (scrubs face and computer with disinfectant)

(Audience looks remotely alarmed.)

Mia: She's still recovering from a ten-month writer's block, everyone. And this is the first time she's felt fluffy for a while. She's an angst writer. Excuse her.

Artemis: But...but...it's _fluff_! (cringes, recoils, and returns to fumigating the general area)

Mia: It was Y/U fluff. It wasn't even that fluffy. It was like foam, not cotton balls. Get over it. You know you like it.

Artemis: Crap. You have a point.

Reviewing's good for the soul! (points to review button) All flames will be directed to idiots. May they burn merrily.


End file.
